Do unto others
by dhalpin3
Summary: At the end of New Mutants 51 Illyana is quite cross and angry with her friends, and Xavier as well, due to her being forced to return to Limbo and forcibly reintegrated with her dark side. Yet in Issue 52 we see that she is now on speaking terms with them. Something happened and/or resolved some issues between 51 and 52. This is my take.


**Do Unto Others**

Author's note: At the end of New Mutants 51 Illyana is quite cross and angry with her friends, and Xavier as well, due to her being forced to return to Limbo and forcibly reintegrated with her dark side. Yet in Issue 52 we see that she is now on speaking terms with them. Something happened and/or resolved some issues between 51 and 52. This is my take.

Never did like Professor X much.

 **Part 1: Great, grounded and afraid**

 _"Well that could have gone better"_ Berto sarcastically stated after Illyana teleported away, leaving the rest of the New Mutants in the living room. _"Man is she pissed"._

 _"As would any of us forced against their will and desires"_ Karma sadly added. _"I fear that this hasty decision has forced her to pay a price that none of us would be willing to pay if the roles were reversed"._

 _"There warn't time for any other plan or ideas"_ Sam defended. " _The Professor did what he thought was best"._

 _"Best for who"?_ Dani replied. " _Somehow I don't think Illyana thinks this was the best plan"._

 _"Didn't see you complaining at the time Chief"_ Sam rebutted.

 _"No... And that bothers me. None of us did"._

 **Later, late that night:**

The new mutants were once again gathered in the living room. Magneto had just stormed off after delivering a prolonged verbal lashing.

 _"Great, grounded for the rest of the decade. The man has got to be joking"._ Berto again gave forth with the sarcasm.

 _"He exaggerates"_ Dani dejectedly replied as she flopped into a couch. _"I' sure we'll be allowed to leave the grounds in a year or two"._

Warlock issued a question _"Query: The headmaster abruptly terminated the ritualized verbal corrections upon determination of how self and friends returned. As he exited the current local he muttered some words. What does the statement (Charles you bastard, you sent her back to the camps) refer to"?_

 _"Holocaust"._ Sam flatly answered. _"I don't think he approved of the Professor's decision"._

 _"That makes two of us"_ Karma replied.

 _"Fine time to have second thoughts"._ Berto was on a roll tonight with the sarcasm.

 _"Yes, and yet... maybe the first time"._ Karma replied.

 _"What? I dont'a understand what you mean Karma"._ Rahne asked in confusion.

 _"The professor spoke, we obeyed. No questions asked"._ wasKarma's answer.

Only Dani got it, the only other mental power variant mutant in the room. The others could not grasp the concept that the Professor could have abused his mind powers.

 _"Ok",_ Sam went back over Magneto's parting instructions. _"Our instructions are clear. If we see Illyana we are not to engage her in any conversation or approach other then to tell her that the head master desperately needs to speak to her first, before she does anything. That her anger, if there is any, is misplaced"._

Doug decided to inject some optimism into the gloomy atmosphere. _"After all, how bad can it get? She's... she's only an enraged demon sorceress literally from hell. Crap. We are so screwed"._

Sam tried to put Doug in his place. _""Doug, that's unnecessary and inappropriate. Illyana is our friend"._

 _"Is it"?_ Dani rebutted in Doug's defense. _"Are we? I don't think anyone here has the slightest idea of what we may have just done to Illyana, apart from Magneto, and he was appalled"._

 _"Going to be a long night"._ Berto stated the obvious. _"So... who wants to split up and go search for the ax murderer"._

 _"We are not in a horror film Bobby"._ Karma replied in an attempt to calm the growing sense of panic.

Dana concluded _. "No we're not. Illyana is far too methodical to randomly do things like that. This is more like one of those films where everybody is stranded on a storm isolated island while... um never mind"._

Sam closed his eyes and rubbed his head with his right hand _. "Chief, so not helping"._

Bobby flopped down onto a couch as well. _"So now what"?_

In answer teleportation disks flashed into existence beneath them. Before they even had time for a startled yelp they were gone.

 **Part 2: As they have done unto you**

 _"Babeling be pissed"_ S'ym observed the distant magical storm. The one surrounding where his now estranged former boss had replanted her blasted soul sword. Ordinarily S'ym would order an attack, but this storm was unsettling, and very very big. The babeling was up to something, something very wrong and that wrongness was not a rightness for S'ym at this time.

She was playing with ideas and powers she had always shed away from before. Limbo was being deliberately reshaped in a way that was last done by Belasco when he had formed his own version of the Savage Lands. Now she appeared all in as it were and that meant she was extra dangerous.

S'ym was concerned that the shaping might be meant for him, and it felt... nasty.

 _"Humph, best to let the cuteling huff and puff all by her lonesome"_ S'ym opined with both deep understanding and yet no understanding at all.

Meanwhile:

In the center of the storm Illyana was crafting... well hells. She was way way beyond pissed. Feeling betrayed would be like saying Hamlet was mildly miffed that his uncle had killed his father and was now shagging his mother. She felt... Raw. Unbalanced. Thrust into the abyss by those she trusted. She wanted to return the favor, let them feel what she was feeling. Pay like for like.

Fully in her Darkchilde physical incantation, with her hands on the pummel of her sword, still planted into the very stuff of Limbo, she exerted her will and power over Limbo. Hell she was in, hells she was creating, each crafted for a very special person. Each hell was formed out of a special kind of rejection. The rejection that only friends and loved ones could deliver. The sacrificing of you for themselves.

 **Sam:** Losing his father had been devastating. How much worse to have his friends decided that he needed to lose his mother has well. It's for the best Sam, it's for the greater good. Oh, and your siblings... well hopefully child services will be able to place them somewhere nice. But they have such a poor track record. Oh well, they'll be somewhere. Just not with or by you.

 **Dani:** Turns out that to save ourselves we need the demon bear back. Bummer for you, and your parents I guess (after all they're needed to recreate the bear). It's not as if we're affected, only you. Enjoy. Oh, and the bear is searching for you again.

 **Xi'an (Karma):** Hey girl, guess who's back? The shadow king wanted a new host and we all took a vote. It's you again. I mean... who wants to be a gigantic blob and having their body used to satisfy his lusts? You've been there before so we thought you'd deal with it best. Heck we actually don't care how you deal, just so that we don't have to. Not our problem. Enjoy.

 **Rahne:** You just don't fit in. With us that is. Well... with everybody to accurate. Back to the Reverend and the orphanage. Oh, and here's a power restriction band so you don't try to get feisty. Shame that you've kind of blossomed a bit, might get a bit more attention from the Reverend then you want. Well, keep your chin up girl. Who knows? Someday somebody just might care.

 **Bobby:** Bobby, bobby, bobby. Love ya. We all love ya. It's just that. Well it's kind of like this. Somebody has to be sacrificed and it's you. But don't worry you don't get hurt. Just Juliana. You get to have Juliana die for you over and over again. Every day she lives again only do die again in your arms because of something you did. But... just think; maybe, just maybe, there is something you can do that will allow her to live. There might be, but where would the fun be if you knew what it was.

The Professor's hell was special. Betrayer of trust. Rapist of hope. She was extra proud of it. You want to be god, decide other people's fate. Believe you know best. Well here you go. Let me know how that works out for you.

Amana, Doug, and Warlock's hells were still works in progress. Hmm for Amana something do with Selena and her dead mother. Need to think a bit on Dougie and Lock, maybe a twin'd hell for them both?

Illyana was still working on the final hells when a nagging thought intruded _(What if they were forced to do it)_?

Illyana paused, and then angrily rejected the thought. They had not been forced. Look how quickly they acquiesced _(Yes, very quickly. Not a word of protest. Almost as if they had been commanded)_.

Illyana stopped in the hell creation and grew a scrying mirror from the ground. In it she replayed the scenes of her betrayal. Unnoticed blood dripped from her left hand where she clenched so hard that the nails dug into her palm.

Yes it had been quick. But she saw that Dani had protested and rebuked the Professor the first time that he had had Karma posses her. Karma had looked... ashamed. Rahne looked scared and uncertain; like she could never imagine that Illyana could be so vulnerable.

These were not answers. Only possible hints. Illyana dismissed the mirror and it faded back into the ground. But rather then resume her hell building tasks she mused upon these faint misgivings _(Give them a chance, it's more then you got)_.

In the end she built one additional piece of limbo. Not a hell, not as such; although it was a hell to her. She recreated the spaceship room where they all had been when Karma possessed Illyana and forced her to take them all to limbo and to retrieve her sword. Think holo deck from Star Trek.

Now for the players of our little drama. With a flick of her hand her companions were teleported to Limbo and instantly placed in a kind of stasis. They would be the live players. Illyana, the Professor, and the others would only be illusions, tasked to respond in character. But in this case the Professor would only have words, no mind control. No hidden telepathic back doors. And the players would have their minds clouded, the subsequent events forgotten until the end of the this little judgment passion play.

Illyana let the play unfold and was astonished at the results. They refused. The Professor was denied, blocked, thwarted. It wasn't all hugs and roses. Bobby and Sam had argued on the Professor's side. Rahne, Doug, and Warlock were silent and uncertain. Xi'an refused and Dani backed her up. They called it rape. Xi'an was particular angry in her refusal. In the end Bobby and Sam had reluctantly sided with Xi'an and Dani.

Random chance? She reset the pieces and ran it again. Again the same results. Illyana reset and ran it over and over. Always the refusal. Sometimes the players changed sides a bit. Sometimes unlikely interactions resulted. One time Rahne went wolf and threatened the professor (surprise surprise), something about climbing over bodies to get what you wanted was not right. Dani and Xi'an always said no.

In the end Illyana felt her rage turn to wet ashes; bitter, foul, and cold. She returned them to stasis and summoned her scrying mirror again. Professor Z was shown. Alive. He and the crew were running for their lives, but alive.

Shre stared and watched the mirror for a time. In the end she addressed the mirror. _"You chose for them. You chose for me. I will not forgive you that"._

With tired eyes she surveyed the personal hells she had made. _"Be not"._ And the hells were gone. Illyana's Darkchilde physical form faded, now just Illyana's human form was there. A tired, sad young woman who had just lost one of her strongest beliefs, her trust in the Professor.

She gazed on the Professor in the scrying mirror for a while more, then with a look of tired rage she spoke. _"You like to decide for others. Let you at least dream from time to time of the hell you avoided but condemned me to"._

With that she teleported away, taking herself and the others back to the mansion. They were relieved to find that Illyana had apparently got over her rage. Her private talk with Magneto was... emotional. Professor Z did not get good press.

 **Part 3: Epilogue (The golden rule)**

Xavier awoke from the dream with a start. The dream came to him now and then and despite all of his attempts to rid himself of it. It was always the same dream.

He got to pick. He got to play god. He decided who lived and died.

Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno, Treblinka, and finally Auschwitz.

He got to work at them all. He job was simple.

He met the trains and picked the ones that were then sent to the showers.


End file.
